Are You Afraid to be Different?

Every month I publish my monthly income numbers online and even though the money I’m earning is more than enough to get me by, I always mention the same thing. “This may be considered a low income but it works for me.”

And all of a sudden I’m wondering why I even add this statement.

To fill you in I earn somewhere around $2,500/month and all of my expenses only come to $1,600/month. In my opinion I have a good life. Two wonderful kids. An awesome family. A place to live. Work I enjoy. And no debt.

But compared to other income reports bloggers publish, my income equates to a tiny fraction of theirs.

I have been working to earn more money and the extra I do earn goes straight to savings. But even though I’m perfectly happy with where I’m at I feel the need to state that what I’m earning isn’t that great. And I don’t know why.

Not Being Afraid to Be Different

I try hard to live my life the way I want without conforming to what others think. After all I bought a $1,500 trailer to fix up and live in. I know a lot of people, even in desperate financial situations, wouldn’t live in a trailer because of the stigma associated. (You know the whole “trailer trash” thing.)

I’ve worked pretty darn hard to build up my own freelancing business – working two day jobs and working online on the side for many months.

So, no I don’t think I’m afraid to be different. But I think self-comparison is so hard to avoid even if when we don’t realize that we’re doing it.

The Benefits of Being Different

I’ll admit – when I was first out on my own I didn’t want to be different. I wanted the big house, nice furniture, and nice cars just like my parents had had.

I maxed out my credit cards buying things like flat screen TVs and new curtains. I bought a car that costs as much as my yearly salary.

Then I had kids. And things changed.

All I cared about was giving them the good life and all the superficial, consumer driven madness vanished. I now had priorities and new cars and big screen TV’s weren’t among them.

I wanted to be debt free. I wanted to do work I enjoyed doing. I wanted to be living the life I loved. And I’m here now.

When you choose to be free of what society expects of you and the live the life you truly enjoy – no matter what that might be – your whole world changes.

Now my life consists of digging up worms in the backyard with my daughters. Reading books and laughing together. Playing dress up and fixing hair. (And dealing with the occasional temper tantrum that comes my way.) Fishing, target shooting, and bonfires with my brothers. And waking up in the morning with a smile on face because I’m doing work I enjoy.

(Okay, technically I don’t wake up with a smile on my face but you get the point.)

Moral of the Story

Self-Comparison in some form or another is really hard to avoid one hundred percent of the time. But if you’re intentional on living life according to your values and priorities you can build the life you love.

Stop caring what random people think about you and do what makes you happy. After all you only have one life to live.

Are you afraid to be different?